The invention relates to home security systems, including the detecting of security and safety breaches, remote monitoring thereof, and the dispatching of the proper authorities in response to a security and/or safety breach.
Many security systems include multiple video cameras, motion detectors, heat sensors, as well as various door and window traps that have been placed in a building structure by a security company or security system vendor. Such a building structure may include, but is in no way limited to, houses, apartment buildings, hotels, office buildings, and stores. The video cameras, motion detectors, heat sensors, and door and window traps, which may be referred to generally as xe2x80x9csecurity equipmentxe2x80x9d, may be monitored by personnel of the security company who are located at a central station.
That is, as shown in the example of FIG. 4, a security system may include security equipment 405, shown generically, which may include video cameras, motion detectors, heat sensors and door and window traps that are disposed throughout a building structure 400, which may include either of a residence or a place of business. The present description will refer to a residence, though there are very minor differences, if any, between a security system for a residence and any of the other exemplary building structures mentioned above, and therefore the terms may be used interchangeably for the purposes of the present invention.
In the residence 400 of FIG. 4, the security equipment 405 is connected, via a telecommunications network 415, to a central station 420 of the security system provider where security system personnel 425 monitor the individual residential security systems.
Thus, if a security breach is detected, such as a break-in, burglary or fire, in addition to triggering a local alarm to alert the occupants of the security breach, the security equipment 405 transmits an alarm signal to the security system central station 420 via the telecommunications network 415. The detection signal that is received by the security system central station 420, and that is monitored by the security company personnel 425, includes an indication of whether the security breach is a break-in or fire. Further, in the event of a break-in, the detection signal may further indicate the xe2x80x9czonexe2x80x9d in which the break-in has occurred. That is, the detection signal may indicate in which room or location the break-in has occurred, and may even further indicate which door or window has been detected as being breached.
At the security system central station 420, the monitoring personnel 425 may then begin a verification protocol, which may include calling a telephone line 410 at the residence 400 from which the alarm originated. This xe2x80x9ccall-backxe2x80x9d enables the occupant to provide a predetermined personal security code, thereby assisting the security monitoring personnel 425 in determining whether an actual security breach has occurred or whether the security equipment has triggered a false alarm. In the event of a false alarm, then the security breach alarm received at the security system central station 420 is disregarded.
In the event that there is no answer at the residence from which the alarm originated, or an incorrect security code is provided in response to the call back, the security system monitoring personnel 425 may then dispatch the local authorities, or emergency services EMS 430, relative to the geographic location of the residence from which the alarm originated, and then continue the verification protocol. That is, in the event that the received detection signal indicates a break-in, the security system monitoring personnel 425 will dispatch the police department for the jurisdiction of the residence from which the alarm originated, and in the event that the received detection signal indicates a fire, the security monitoring personnel will dispatch the fire department for the jurisdiction of the residence from which the alarm originated. The verification protocol continues whereby the security monitoring personnel continue attempts to reach the owner of the residence by calling a sequence of telephone numbers that have been predetermined. The predetermined sequence of telephone numbers may include in no set order, but in no way limited to, the owner""s cell phone, place of business, or even a friend or relative""s phone number. The security company monitoring personnel will exhaust the telephone numbers in the predetermined sequence, even though the authorities have already been dispatched.
However, due to a variety of reasons, including the intense pressure that may accompany the job, security system monitoring personnel often forego the verification protocol and proceed immediately to dispatching the local authorities, including either the local police department or fire department. As a result, police and firefighting personnel have been dispatched in response to false alarms, thus squandering civic resources and needlessly placing citizens in peril who are in actual need of such services. There is even a further cost, whereby actual emergency situations may go unattended if emergency services have been previously dispatched to a false alarm that has not been properly canceled. The increase in false alarms incurs a financial cost to both the residential owner who must pay a civil penalty for false alarms over a predetermined threshold (three, for example) within a one-year period and to taxpayers in general who bear the burden of mis-allocated resources.
Further aggravating the situation, often times the monitoring security service personnel dispatch the improper authorities, whereby police have been dispatched for a fire emergency or a local fire department dispatched for a police emergency. Further still, many instances have occurred in which police or firefighting personnel from the wrong jurisdiction have been dispatched, thus compromising the response time to an actually emergency situation.
At least as far as the security companies, or security service vendors, are concerned, many dissatisfied customers respond to the exemplary shortcomings described above by canceling their residential security services or by switching their residential security provider.
Therefore, the present invention provides a novel network method for administrating a security system for residences and places of business which substantially eliminates the errors and delays in response times described above that are associated with most present-day security systems. In particular, the present invention provides a network-based administration of security systems by eliminating the respective security company monitoring stations and implementing a network, having a security platform, that works in cooperation with home computers for respective residences and places of business. That is, the network has multiple security platforms, and each security platform is scalable to accommodate multiple security system vendors. Further, each security platform implements an intelligent database.
In an example embodiment of the present invention, the platform corresponding to a respective security system vendor may receive tracking information for various emergency services personnel, including police and fire fighting personnel, either as the individual personnel register their locations with the network while on duty or by tracking the individual personnel using positioning technology including, but not limited to, GPS (global positioning system). The tracking information may even include registration information for the headquarters for local police departments, fire departments and emergency medical services, i.e., paramedics.
When a security breach, which may include, but is not limited to, a break-in or a fire, has occurred at a residence or place of business that subscribes to the services of the respective security system vendor, the security platform may receive a surveillance profile from a computer that is disposed at the residence or place of business at which the security breach has been detected. The computer serves as a database for all video cameras, motion detectors, heat detectors, window and door traps and any other security equipment located on the premises of the respective residence or place of business, and stores therein a surveillance profile for all local security equipment. Thus, when a security breach is detected, a detection signal is transmitted from the respective security equipment to the computer, and is then further transmitted, by network interface device (NID), to the network and the security platform.
The surveillance profile may include, but is not limited to, the type of sensor, registration information of the individual sensor, which may pertain to its address, location within the residence or place of business, and a physical description or layout of the premises in which the sensor is located. The type of sensor may include, but is not limited to, a video camera, a motion detector, a heat detector, and window or door trap. Most alarms received from the individual motion and heat detectors will also be accompanied by picture images provided by corresponding security video cameras.
After receiving the surveillance profiles from the computer on behalf of the security equipment that has detected a security breach, a verification protocol may be initiated. However, unlike conventional security system monitoring systems as described above, the present invention eliminates a security company central station, thus substantially eliminating human error which is a predominant cause of false alarms and the dispatching of inappropriate emergency services personnel. In particular, the intelligent database at the security platform may implement a subscriber verification protocol by calling a predetermined telephone number that has been previously submitted by the subscriber to the respective security system vendor. This predetermined telephone number may be supplemented, or even replaced by, an electronic-mail (e-mail) message to an internet protocol (IP) address corresponding to the computer that has initially reported the detected security breach. The subscriber verification telephone call or e-mail may include an automated request for a predetermined security code. A voice recognition program in the security platform may receive a verbal response to the automated request, and the intelligent database at the security platform may then compare the received response against the predetermined security code, which is stored in the intelligent database at the security platform. Similarly, an e-mail response to the automated response may be compared against the predetermined security code at the intelligent database. Upon receiving the predetermined security code, the intelligent database may deem the security breach to have been inadvertent, or a xe2x80x9cfalse alarmxe2x80x9d, and thereby terminate all emergency protocol. However, if there is no response to the automated request for the predetermined security code, or if the party responding to the automated request is unable or even unwilling to provide the predetermined security code, then the database may then transmit the security breach information to the proper authorities, to thereby dispatch the appropriate emergency services personnel.
The subscriber verification protocol described above is more appropriate for burglary, or break-in, emergencies. That is, most security systems, including the present invention, may disregard the verification protocol for detected fire emergencies since time is of the essence in such actual emergencies. However, for both break-in type and fire emergencies, after the appropriate emergency services personnel have been dispatched, the intelligent database at the security platform of the present invention may then implement a notification protocol. The notification protocol may include the intelligent database at the security platform calling a predetermined sequence of telephone numbers, which may be supplemented or even replaced by an automated e-mail message to at least one IP address, which have been submitted to the security system in advance by the subscriber to the security system. The calls, or automated e-mail messages, may proceed until either a designated party is reached or the sequence of calls has been exhausted. An answering party, or even answering machine or service, to such automated telephone calls may receive an automated message that includes the time of the emergency at the corresponding address, and further include the type of emergency and a notification that the proper emergency services personnel have been dispatched and the time of such dispatch.
The step of dispatching of the appropriate emergency services personnel may include the intelligent database at the security platform finding corresponding emergency services personnel to respond to the detected security breach. The appropriate emergency services personnel, including those from a local police department or fire department in the jurisdiction of the residence or place of business in which the security breach has occurred, are those whose tracking information matches the address that is included in the received surveillance profile. Then, the intelligent database at the security platform may instruct the network to route a call to the matched emergency services personnel.
Thus, the present invention utilizes a smart network to administer security systems for residences and places of business that substantially eliminate false alarms and dispatches the most appropriate personnel for expeditiously responding to detected security breaches.